Google could be preparing to bring a handy battery-preserving feature over from the Pixel smartphone range to its Pixel Watch smartwatches.
Android Authority has been delving through the code of the latest version of Google’s Pixel Watch Management Service system app, and has discovered references to Adaptive Charging.
In case you missed the reference, Adaptive Charging is currently employed on phones like the Google Pixel 9 Pro to preserve long-term battery health.
When a Pixel device hits 80% of a charge, it’ll hold off charging the rest of the way. Then, after learning your charging habits (perhaps through a set alarm), it’ll resume charging to 100% an hour or so prior to when you would normally take it off charge.
Why it matters
Bringing this feature over to the Pixel Watch range makes an awful lot of sense. While some of us may change our smartphones on an annual basis, wearables tend to stick around on our wrists for several years at a time.
Mattias Inghe
That places an extra focus on long term battery health – especially given that smartwatch battery life is still only just about acceptable in many cases. With the added burden of sleep tracking placing extra demands, your modern smartwatch’s tiny cell can take quite the pounding.
That’s about all we have for solid information on Adaptive Charging for Pixel Watch wearables. We don’t learn any details about how this Adaptive Charging feature will work in a wearable context – especially when many users wear them overnight to track sleep – nor when it’s likely to be rolled out.
It’s possible it could arrive on the Pixel Watch 4 later this year as well as being sent out as a software upgrade to existing models like the Pixel Watch 3 but that’s speculation for now.
Until we hear more, it’s enough to know that this battery-preserving feature is cooking away in the background at Google HQ.
